An entrepreneur according to the Macmillan English Dictionary is someone that who uses money to start businesses and make business deals. We are all aware of the effects the economic meltdown has on most countries in the world today which includes budgets deficits, unemployment poverty etc. Africa is no exception to these problems. In my country Nigeria, statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/unemployment-rate) shows that the unemployment rate rose to 23.9% as at December 2011 and it is expected to rise in the following year. Little wonder you find many youths without jobs roaming the streets.
Well at present Africa seems to be doing well. Nigeria for example is expected to expand by more than 6 per cent a year until 2015 according to the International Monetary Fund(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/economic-growth-stirs-hope-in-africa-7834230.html). This is why you find foreign investors setting their sights on Afica. It’s a gold mine!!! This is expected to lower the rate of unemployment, encourage healthy competition between firms, better standard of living amond citizens and most likely increase the GDP of African countries. So why do we still have so many youth jobless?
Many people would say the government is responsible. This is true but not entirely true. The government has the responsibility of providing job opportunities to its citizens but the government cannot provide employment to all citizens. In other words, their wants cannot be easily satisfied as a result of limited resources. Hence a choice has to be made, You either continue to wait for a job or you create a job for yourself. Sadly that is not what an average youth would think of. In Nigeria for instance, if you ask a couple of youths what they would do with if given a large sum of money, majority would say nothing about starting up a business. Rather, majority of them would rather use the money to venture into the music industry in the hope of getting ‘fame and fortune’.
So as you can see, most youths lack the entrepreneurial spirit. The business innovation is missing and this is all because of their mentality. The youths have little or no idea of what is going on in the economy and how to key themselves in within and outside the country and sadly parents encourage this by giving the impression that there are still jobs available.
The bible says in proverbs 23:7a that as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Youths need to embrace the entrepreneurial mentality and have ample knowledge of what is going on what goes on in the economy. Parents should ensure that their children listen to the news and not just movies, cartoons or music videos. Parents should also stop making their children believe that there will be jobs after they have obtained their degrees. Parents should teach their children to have a saving culture rather than spending. The government also try to encourage entrepreneurs by setting up workshops for youths. The rest……is up to them. Don’t wait for a job….create for yourself and others.

Are you Youngs relative??

Actually, I'm his son

The essence of the savings culture is to be less extravagant. For instance, when teenagers are given their pocket money, majority of them would spend of it on what they would like to have and not what they need. Yes, there is need to acquire assets and skills but in other to purchase these assets they need to set some money aside.....that is where savings come in.